Clean a Blue Crab (Dead Critter Content)

Another home run thread. I like how clear and concise everything is.

This is an excellent tutorial.
 
We catch Blue Crabs on chicken parts and a string up here.

Sometimes, like happened the other day, we can even get a gator!

This is two miles from where I lived a few years ago. Ha!

http://wjz.com/pets/alligator.patapsco.river.2.1843096.html

Then there was a Caiman they caught in a drainage pond thing along Route 100 near Arundel Mills Mall where I also once lived. That was a couple years ago, IIRC.
 
Thanks for the post. We caught crabs in nets using chicken necks and such. Crawfish would get in there and sometimes they would have a death grip on it and would die in place......:)

Crabs are great boiled in seafood seasoning....born in New Orleans....now live in southern Mississippi - seafood is a way of life.
 
I never really thought to clean them before cooking. There's a huge bowl of cooked blue claws in the fridge right now caught in good old NJ.
 
Here are the rest of the pics. The cooking portion I'll post in the Cooking forum and I'll put a link. I wanted to gear this thread towards the folks that haven't messed with these things before. The ones that may end up on a camping trip on the coast and catch a mess of these and be like "o.k., what do I with them now?" Before cooking, if you trim the "crown" it will make it easier to pull the lump meat. This hard area here.
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Just trim it off, you will see where the meat starts. You can either steam or boil em. Either way, do not over cook them, as you will end up with mush. when the shell turns red, they are done. I boiled these four in a little spicy crab/crawfish/shrimp seasoning.
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Now if you didn't over cook them, some meat will come out of the joint when you pull the claw out.

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Crack the claw and the "arm" open. Most folks have probably done this with lobster or snow crabs.
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Then break the body in half.
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Where the legs meet the body there will be meat. Especially the hind quarter.
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You may have to pick, squeeze, or break little pieces of shell. But there will be chunks at the end of each leg.
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When you are done, what you'll have is all sweet crab meat. Ready for pasta sauces, gumbos, or crab cakes.
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Outstanding tutorial Fishshooter! I'm a West Coast guy now transplanted to the South East; thanks for the walk through on the Blue Crabs!

ROCK6
 
In MD i have grown up on craps. When I was little I always ate the lungs (devils fingers) and still do sometimes. I cook mine whole and alive though with lots of old bay after pulled out of the steamer pot. I do like some of the mustard (Orange stuff inside that is basically crab shit). Damn, now I want to go crabbing next weekend.
 
Man, that looks tasty. Well-done tutorials like this, with detailed instructions and great pics, make W&SS a valuable resource.
 
nice! what do you use to catch the blue crab? we have a bit of them up here in NC as well. awesome read my man.. btw i just ordered the yellow lady bug
 
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